Device for imparting horizontally oscillatory rotating movement to articles



y 1968 REIJIRO ITQ 3,383,528

DEVICE FOR IMPARTING HORIZONTALLY OSCILLATOR! ROTATING MOVEMENT TO ARTICLES Original Filed Aug. 30, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR REI J I R0 ITO i /W, 06 m mww ATTORNEY6' y 1968 REIJIRO ITO 3,

DEVICE FOR IMPARTING HORIZONTALLY OSCILLATOR! I ROTATING MOVEMENT TO ARTICLES Original Filed Aug. 150, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

INVENTOR RE I J I R0 ITO fmjmw w TTORNEYS United States Patent M 3,383,528 DEVICE FOR IMPARTING HORIZONTALLY OSCILLATORY ROTATING MOVEMENT T0 ARTICLES Reijiro Ito, Tokyo, Japan, assignor to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, and Kokusai Display Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, Japan Original application Aug. 30, 1965, Ser. No. 483,404, now Patent No. 3,325,759, dated June 13, 1967. Divided and this application Jan. 31, 1967, Ser. No. 630,159

Claims priority, application Japan, Sept. 4, 1964, 39/70,100; Nov. 24, 1964, 39/90,996; June 16, 1965, 40/48,551; June 30, 1965, 40/39,871

2 Claims. (Cl. 310-32) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device for imparting horizontal oscillatory movement to a display article including a resilient means fixedly mounted to a stationary member and depending therefrom. The free end of the resilient means being fixed to a member including a horizontal oscillatory arm with a permanent magnet mounted on the free end thereof in opposition to an electromagnet fixed on the stationary member. Switch contact means are mounted on each member so that contact is made when the resilient means is in the rest position whereby a repulsive force will be developed in the energized electromagnet to drive the permanent magnet in one direction or the other.

The present application constitutes a division of my copending application Serial No. 483,404, filed August 30, 1965, now issued as Patent 3,325,759.

This invention relates to improvements in a device for imparting horizontally oscillatory rotating movement to articles.

Conventional devices for imparting movement to articles of advertisement such as articles of commerce, outdoor signboards and chandeliers have been provided with power supply means consisting of an electric motor and a reduction gearing of complex structure and have therefore encountered various operating difiiculties including a problem of providing successful wear resisting means in a turntable and reduction gears and a problem of overheat in the motor due to continuous operation for an elongated period of time. In order to deal with these difficulties, conventional devices of the kind described have necessarily become complex in their structure, required a high cost of manufacture and required troublesome procedures for the proper maintenance thereof.

Difficulties have been encountered especially with a device for imparting movement to outdoor signs in which case breakage of its reduction gearing or overheat of its electric motor has frequently taken place due to overload by wind and thus the device has become uneconomical and has been difiicult to put into practical application.

It has been acknowledged that an interesting manner of advertisement can be derived by providing a device which imparts horizontally oscillatory rotating movement opposite to each other to two articles of advertisement, articles of commerce, decorative articles or the like. However, due to the fact that such device inevitably requires a complex mechanism including link means, gear means or belt transmission means, requires a high cost of manufacture and is liable to break, this kind of device could not be mass-produced.

The present invention intends to eliminate the prior drawbacks as described above and has for one of its objects to provide a device for imparting horizontally 3,383,528 Patented May 14, 1968 oscillatory rotating movement to articles in which a movable support carrying thereon the articles such as articles of advertisement, articles of commerce or chandeliers is adapted to be moved by the combination of a force of repulsion or attraction between magnets and torsional movement of a resilient body carrying the movable support suspended therefrom so that the movable support is subjected to an interesting movement instead of mere constant-speed rotary movement and thus a great effect of display of the articles of advertisement can be obtained.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for imparting horizontally oscillatory rotating movement to articles in which a resilient suspension system is provided to support the movable support carrying thereon the articles such as articles of advertisement whereby load on the bearings for the movable support is reduced and the device of simple structure and of long service life can positively be utilized for use with outdoor signboards and the like.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a device for imparting horizontally oscillatory rotating movement to articles in which the movable support acting as an inner oscillator is freely rotatably mounted in an outer oscillator and at the same time carried in suspended relation in the outer oscillator by means of a resilient body while the outer oscillator is suspended from a stationary supporting member by means of an. efiective torque transmitting means such as a string or a chain so that the inner and outer oscillators make horizontally oscillatory rotating movement in directions opposite to each other and thus a device imparting a more interesting movement to the articles can be utilized for the purpose of advertisement or room accessories.

According to the present invention, the force for causing the rotary movement of the movable support or the inner and outer oscillators is generated by a combination of a force of repulsion or attraction between a permanent magnet or a magnetic body and an instantaneously energized electromagnet and 21 force of restitution of a resilient body against torsion. Therefore, power consumption is extremely small and rotary oscillation can be continued for a long period of time even with a source of power supply in the form of a battery.

The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the operating mechanism of one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a side view, partially in section, of the device of FIG. 1 showing a decorative sign mounted in place.

The figures show an embodiment of the invention, in which a base plate 11 serves as a stationary support and is suspended from hangers 12 fixed to suitable portions of a ceiling wall 13. A bracket 25 is fixed at a substantially central portion of the base plate 11 to suspend a suspension rod 14 therefrom through a universal joint 26. A bar 15 of resilient material is fixed at its upper end to the lower end of the suspension rod 14 to depend downwardly therefrom and has its lower end fixed to a rotary plate 19 on which an article of advertisement 20 is to be mounted.

An oscillatory rod 10 is fixed at its lower end to a.

portion near one end of the rotary plate 19 and has its upper portion fixed to one end of an oscillatory arm 17, which is loosely mounted for rotation on the suspension rod 14 and carries a permanent magnet 18 on its free end. A stationary contact 23 and a movable contact 24 are provided on the base plate 11 and the oscillatory arm 17, respectively, in a manner that the latter contact is brought into contact with the former contact when the resilient bar 15 takes its non-twisted position. An electromagnet 16 is fixed on the base plate 11 so that, at the above position of the the resilient bar 15, the electromagnet 16 connected to a battery 21 is opposed by the permanent magnet 18 on the arm 17 and is energized to a polarity opposite to that of the permanent magnet 18.

When now the permanent magnet 18 and the electromagnet 16 are opposite to each other and the contact 24 is in contact with the contact 23, exciting current supplied from the battery 21 to the exciting coil 22 energizes the electromagnet 16 to urge the permanent 18 away therefrom. Therefore, the oscillatory arm 17 rotates about the suspension rod 14 and the contact 24 is urged away from the contact 23. This movement of the oscillatory arm 17 causes torsion of that portion of the resilient bar 15 on the sideof the rotary plate 19 with the portion thereof adjacent the suspension rod 14 left fixed, with the result that the oscillatory arm 17 is restricted from further movement and is urged backwardly to its original position. The electromagnet 16 is energized to urge the permanent magnet 18 away therefrom each time the magnet 16 is opposed by the magnet 18 and the circuit is closed by the contacts 23 and 24. Thus, the oscillator arm 17 continues its oscillating movement without any attenuation. It will be apparent that such oscillating movement of the arm 17 causes corresponding movement of the rotary plate 19 and of the article of advertisement 20 mounted on the plate 19. Obviously, the permanent magnet and the electromagnet could be interchanged so that the electromagnet oscillates with oscillatory arm 17 while the permanent magnet is stationary.

From the foregoing description, it will be understood that, in the device according to the present invention, the drive force for causing rotation of a movable body supporting an article of advertisement, an article of commerce, a chandelier or the like is derived from a combined action of the force of repulsion or attraction imparted by an electromagnet and the torsional movement of a resilient body. Therefore, the movable body makes an interesting movement attracting the attention of viewers instead of the conventional constant-speed rotary movement and the resilient suspension system for the article of advertisement, etc. employed in the invention reduces load on the bearing. Thus, the inventive device having a simplified mechanism and a long service life can successfully be used with outdoor signboards. Further, it will be appreciated that, by virtue of extremely low power consumption, power supply means such as a battery can conveniently be used for operation over an extended period of time.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for imparting horizontally oscillatory rotating movement to articles comprising resilient means depending from a stationary member by being fixed at one end to said stationary member, a horizontally oscillatory arm loosely fitted at one end on said resilient means for free rotation thereabout, a permanent magnet mounted on the other end of said oscillatory arm, a rotary plate fixed to the lower end of said resilient means, an oscillatory rod fixed at its upper end to said one end of said oscillatory arm and at its lower end to said rotary plate, an electrical contact provided on said stationary member, a corresponding electrical contact provided on said oscillatory arm, and an electromagnet provided on said stationary member in a manner that it is energized through closure of said electrical contacts in the nontvvisted state of said resilient means to thereby impart force of repulsion to said permanent magnet.

2. A device according to claim 1, in which said permanent magnetis mounted on said stationary member and said electromagnet is mounted on said oscillatory arm.,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,649,551 8/1953 Yarrow 31032 2,810,083 10/1957 Dunay 31039 3,075,102 1/1963 Dunay 310-39 3,128,398 4/1964 Ito 31039 XR MILTON O. HIRSHFIELD, Primary Examiner.

D. F. DUGGAN, Assistant Examiner. 

